Pages

March 20, 2010

The Other Side of the Source Coin!

Death Certificate for Lillie Ann Coffey Carter
Click to Enlarge

This is a North Carolina death certificate for Lillie Ann Coffey Carter, a daughter of Napoleon Austin Caleb Coffey and his wife Mary Matilda Townsend. Austin, as he appears in the census record and Mary Matilda were married prior to 1882 in NC. Their marriage record has not yet been found.

Their children were Cleveland Napoleon, born in May of 1882; Lillie Ann, born May 3, 1886; Rosa B., born Oct., 1888 and Perry Elmore, born Mar. 25, 1892.

There are several errors of interest to me on this document, and were likely were made by the informant, Mr. M. M. Carter of China Grove, NC. He was probably Lillie's husband.

First error: Lillie was born in Caldwell Co. per Vol. 12, Page 65 of the Caldwell Co., birth index.

Second error: Her mother was not Ellen Adams.

Third error: Her father's given name is misspelled.

The third error is not that gross. The birth place and mother's name errors, in my opinion, are. Anyone looking for Napoleon and Ellen Coffey in Avery Co. in 1886 will likely not find them there, especially without an 1890 census to help.

I have noticed that several internet genealogies for this family omit Mary Ellen’s surname, and appear to assume that Mary Ellen Adams and Mary Matilda Townsend were the same person; e.g., Mary E. Matilda Townsend.

Austin’s children with Mary Ellen Adams were:

1 - William McKinley, born Feb. 22, 1898, died Oct. 26, 1953 in Crossnore Twp., Avery Co. He married Annie Lee Crump in 1921, Caldwell Co. She was born Nov. 29, 1901 in Caldwell and died Mar. 10, 1994 in Morganton, Burke Co. After William died Annie married his uncle, Wheeler Eden Coffey. Wheeler had been previously married to his second cousin, Mary Emaline Townsend, daughter of Joseph and Rosa Bell Coffey Townsend.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Contact Form

Name

Email
*

Message
*

Search This Blog

Loading...

Coffey DNA Project

If you are male and your surname is Coffee or Coffey or anything that sounds like that (maybe even "O'Cobhthaigh" if you're still using one of the original Gaelic spellings?) you're invited to join our project.